What Jabba Looked Like Before RETURN OF THE JEDI

One of my favorite characters in the Star Wars universe is Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi. Powerful, disgusting, sadistic, and terrifying, Jabba has become symbolic of greed and obesity in our culture. I always thought his sluglike appearance perfectly captured his personality, which is why I was surprised to find out he didn't always look that way. Here's a peek at how Jabba was portrayed before his final appearance in ROTJ.

Jabba the Hutt was originally meant to appear in a scene in A New Hope. They had actor Declan Mulholland playing the role of Jabba on the set.

They planned to replace him with a stop motion creature that would look something like this:

The scene was never finished and cut from the movie, although it was restored with a CGI Jabba in the Special Edition.

Jabba eventually made his first appearance in the comic adaptation of A New Hope as this:

Jabba continued to make appearances in the expanded universe of the Marvel comics this way for years.

When it came time to make Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi, they knew they needed to nail him down. Unfortunately, they still had a long way to go. Here are some early concept drawings.

Source: Ralph McQuarrie

Ultimately, Jabba the Hutt became the loathsome scum we know and love today.

There's this awesome special my family enjoyed for years (From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga) that showed the original footage of the human Jabba, which made it that much better (except for the awkwardness of Han walking around him that was a huge beneficiary of Lucas continuing to tinker with the movie) when we saw the later Jabba fitted into it.

I also had huge problems with that scene. I remember when I first saw the updated version in theater when Han stepped over him. His facial expressen seems to be as much from the pain of having Han step on his tail as it is from Jabba seeing his stature and character just fade away...